Working With Our Waterkeepers
By New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine

New Jersey has a rich legacy of progressive environmental policies and I’m proud that my administration is continuing to expand upon that legacy. A key reason for this is the support of the Waterkeepers in New Jersey. We are privileged to have four Waterkeepers who serve as advocates for our waterways: Andy Willner, NY/NJ Baykeeper; Bill Sheehan, Hackensack Riverkeeper; Bill Schultz, Raritan Riverkeeper; and Maya van Rossum, Delaware Riverkeeper.

As New Jerseyans, we have long realized that our environment is one of the secrets of this state’s economic success. Protecting it is critical to the high quality of life we enjoy, and keeping the environment healthy is crucial to ensuring that future generations can enjoy that same quality of life. Given that, it is our responsibility to prioritize the preservation of open spaces and the protection of our water supply.

When we protect our water quality, we protect the tourism industry that depends on clean beaches. As a coastal state, tourism at our ocean beaches is a large part of our economy. Our inland water resources are not only critical to ocean water quality but also serve as a drinking water and recreational resource to people who live near them.

Clean Water Initiatives
Over the past few years, we have launched a number of major Clean Water Initiatives to protect New Jersey’s water resources. This past Earth Day, Commissioner Jackson proposed special protections for more than 900 miles of waterways and 1,300 acres of reservoirs that supply drinking water to millions of New Jerseyans. Additionally, the commissioner advanced a regulatory proposal that would vastly improve wastewater management statewide.

Eventual adoption of this protection will mean safer drinking water for New Jersey’s families and cleaner habitats for rare species of wildlife. The proposal offers New Jersey the highest level of water-quality protection, limiting development impacts and discharges of pollutants to streams, rivers and lakes, and ensuring no further degradation to waters that support critical wildlife or feed drinking-water sources.

New Water Quality Management Planning Rules were also proposed on Earth Day. These proposed changes will strengthen our ability to shield environmentally fragile areas from the threats that invariably accompany inappropriate development. For the first time, these proposed rules address the impacts of septic systems on groundwater and establish new standards for wastewater management planning, removing environmentally sensitive lands from sewer service areas.

The recently proposed Flood Hazard Area Control Rules seek to clarify and reorganize New Jersey’s regulations to limit new development in flood plains. Current buffer zones of 25 to 50 feet would increase to 50, 150 or 300 feet depending on the category of the waterway. This will streamline activities as complicated as using machinery to remove major obstructions from waterways or elevating buildings above flood hazard areas, as well as activities as simple as building a fence or a patio.

The Department of Environment Protection is in the process of updating the State’s Water Supply Master Plan, which is a critical tool for smart growth. We expect the revision to be completed next year. The final plan will provide a blueprint for managing the state’s water resources over the next 50 years and will ensure sufficient water supply in all parts of the state. It will also recognize that proper management is not just having an adequate potable supply, but ensuring a healthy ecosystem as well.

Our current Stormwater Management Rules emphasize low impact building techniques that will prevent and minimize impact on new development sites using both structural and non-structural techniques such as minimizing land disturbance, minimizing impervious cover, infiltration basins and vegetative filters. The design and performance standards for new development include groundwater recharge, runoff quantity controls, and stream buffers.

This administration’s efforts to develop and implement statewide policies that protect our water supply are made possible, in part, by the support we receive from the environmental community, including our four New Jersey Waterkeepers who work in concert with us and also focus their efforts on protecting their individual rivers.

Global Warming and Water Resources
Over the summer, global warming was in the forefront of the news with the release of the Union of Concerned Scientists Report on Climate Change in the Northeast and the Live Earth Concerts for a Climate in Crisis. In light of the lack of federal action, I signed into law the Global Warming Response Act, strengthening our commitment to this priority issue for the state. New Jersey is now the third state in the nation to mandate Greenhouse Gas reductions by law and the first to codify long-term reductions. The goals set forth are the most ambitious in the country, requiring a reduction of Green House Gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 (20 percent reduction) and further reductions of emissions to 80 percent below 2006 levels by the year 2050 (80 percent reduction).

We have already made significant progress in evaluating policies and measures to achieve these goals and build on the reductions we anticipate from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a ten state cooperative effort to implement a regional mandatory cap and trade program in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic addressing CO2 emissions from power plants. New Jersey plays a leadership role in this initiative, the first mandatory market-based program to reduce carbon emissions in the U.S. It will cap regional power plant CO2 emissions at current levels from 2009 through 2014 and mandates emissions reductions by 10 percent in 2019.

The Clean Vehicle Program, Cool Cities and other clean energy policies and programs are part of a full suite of programs to move New Jersey towards achieving these reductions. Long-term success, however, will require the cooperation of every business and individual in the state.

Natural ecosystems and our water supply will be affected by warmer temperatures and associated changes in the water cycle.  Additionally, warmer temperatures are expected to lead to more intense rain events, and increase the likelihood of droughts and floods. 

NJDEP and Local Waterkeepers
In New Jersey, the Department of Environmental Protection has developed a productive and long-lasting relationship with our state’s Waterkeepers.

In 2004, the Athos I oil tanker ran aground in the Delaware River and leaked an estimated 265,000 gallons of oil. Over the next months, the department’s Watershed Watch Volunteer Monitoring Program worked closely with the Delaware Riverkeeper to monitor and assess impacted segments of the river. Volunteers reported these problems to the department to assist with clean-up efforts. This data continues to be used for assessing long-term impacts to natural resources.

In 2002, the department initiated the Waterways Enforcement Teams in conjunction with our Waterkeepers and other cooperating organizations to strengthen our enforcement efforts. Waterway Enforcement Teams in Northern and Southern New Jersey were established to address concerns voiced by environmental groups regarding the accessibility and ability of enforcement staff to focus on their priority areas. The teams are comprised of land use, water and waste inspectors who partner with local Waterkeepers and environmental groups to conduct boat and foot surveillance of selected waterways throughout the state looking for solid waste, water and land use violations.

Another productive partnership with our Waterkeepers involved the case of the Passaic River. Occidental Chemical Corporation discharged a form of dioxin known as 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), one of the most toxic chemicals ever developed, and other contaminants from a Newark plant into the lower Passaic River. Because of tidal movement, the high concentrations of dioxin in sediment are an ongoing source of contamination to other areas of the river and the New Jersey/New York harbor estuary.

The department continues to be frustrated with the slow pace of the EPA’s cleanup of the contaminated site, but Waterkeepers have been helpful in educating the public about the problem and keeping it in the public eye. The state’s partnership with Waterkeepers also built credibility in our argument to clean up the contamination. Together our voices have been much more effective. Andy Willner and Bill Sheehan remain important allies in our struggle to restore the river.

Partnerships with organizations like members of Waterkeeper Alliance allow us to leverage the abilities of these public interest organizations with the abilities of government and individuals. I look forward to continuing our strong working relationship as we work together to protect New Jersey’s environment for future generations. w